Virginia Tech received a basketball commitment over the weekend from GW-Danville
power forward C.J. Barksdale, and it’s a big commitment indeed. This is the type
of commitment that followers of the program have been waiting for since ACC
expansion, and Barksdale provided it over the weekend. It was unexpected, but it
was a nice Christmas surprise nonetheless.

Barksdale is the #24 rated recruit by PrepStars.com, perhaps the most
respected recruiting service in the basketball industry. Scout.com, which is
right up there with PrepStars, rates him #28 nationally.

To our knowledge, Barksdale is the highest rated recruit to verbal to
Virginia Tech since McDonald’s All-American Dell Curry chose the Hokies back in
1982. To put that in perspective for you, I was not alive when Curry verballed
to Tech. It’s been that long since Tech signed a Top 25 type player.

Barksdale is a 6-7, 225-lbs athletic forward from Danville who chose the
Hokies over Alabama, Florida, Maryland and Wake Forest, among others. He
averaged 18 points, 12 rebounds and four blocks per game last year as a
sophomore. So far this year, he is averaging 19.5 points through GW’s first five
games of the season.

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